Arguably the biggest unknown in this year’s NBA Draft is point guard Emmanuel Mudiay. Despite being universally considered a top-three prospect, very few fans have seen Mudiay play as he went overseas and played professionally in China.
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The NBA Draft Combine begins on May 12 and will bring most of the top prospects together. According to Shams Charania of Real GM however, Mudiay will skip the combine and continue training on his own:
Emmanuel Mudiay won't accept his invitation to the Chicago NBA draft combine, sources tell RealGM. He'll continue training on west coast.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 4, 2015
Charania also added that Mudiay hasn’t yet submitted the official paperwork, and thus is leaving his options open:
Mudiay hasn't yet submitted formal paperwork to skip combine, and could still leave open option to make some sort of appearance in Chicago.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 4, 2015
At 6’5 and around 200 pounds with outstanding speed and athleticism, Mudiay has all of the physical attributes to match up with today’s style of point guards. He is strong, fast and can jump out of the gym. He also has natural point guard instincts and excels at attacking the basket. He has drawn comparisons to the likes of John Wall and Derrick Rose.
With Mudiay playing overseas as opposed to in college, no one has seen him go head-to-head with fellow guards like Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell and Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant. The combine would have been the first chance to see how Mudiay matches up physically and in drills with other guards, but it looks like teams will only get to see Mudiay in private workouts.
[divide]MyNBADraft.com Draft Profiles: Emmanuel Mudiay